Mischief Makers

Joan Baez Senior (Big Joan)

acrylic on canvas  
30 x 20 in

If there is anyone who epitomizes a mischief maker, it’s Joan’s late mother, Joan Baez Sr., affectionately called “Big Joan” by those who knew her and loved her. While others studied at Joan’s Institute for the Study of Nonviolence, her mother didn’t get her activism from lectures or books.

“Mother was a natural,” Joan says. “She didn’t have to learn anything about nonviolence or human decency. It was just part of her nature.” In 1967, as the Vietnam War escalated, the two Joans famously spent Christmas in jail after they were twice arrested with dozens of others for peacefully blocking the entrance to the Oakland Induction Center.

Released after being locked up for more than a month in Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail, Big Joan emerged looking plumper than she had been when she went in. The extra bulk wasn’t from jail food, which was surprisingly good, but from the contraband letters she’d hidden under her sweater from women inmates seeking to take advantage of the chance to write their loved ones without the intruding eyes of jail censors.

“All the girls would be saying, ‘Mama, mama, mama,’ please take this,’ Joan says, recalling that Big Joan also managed to smuggle out another memento of her time behind bars -- a Santa Rita Jail apron that Joan still has.

Joan Sr. went on to write a book about her experience – “Inside Santa Rita: The Prison Memoir of a War Protester,” which earned a five-star review on Amazon.

Joan Sr. died in 2013, a few days after her 100th birthday. Calling her death “my new adventure,” she left behind a farewell message for her family and friends. “Take a moment for silence and wish me well,” she wrote. “I’ll hear you. Then make the bottles pop. You know I love champagne almost as much as I love you!” She signed it “Big Joan.”